Creating an RSS Feed

RSS is an acronym that stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary depending on which version of RSS you use. In summary RSS is a small file that is sent out to other websites with news about the site it is based at.

For example people who view the Just Search RSS Feed will receive information on all the latest search engine optimisation and internet marketing ideas. This feed is constantly updated when the staff at Just Search posts a new Blog entry! The advantages of creating an RSS Feed is that it enables more sites and internet users to view your content and URL. This leads to more visitors and recognition within the search engines.

Please find below a quick guide on how to create your own RSS Feed for your site.

1) Firstly you will need to declare the document as XML, this can be achieved with the following line of code

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″ ?>

2) Next you will need to open the RSS and channel tags, your RSS feed will be place within these tags

<rss version=”2.0″>
<channel>

3) The next section of the RSS feed is where you place information about your site, this includes the title, main URL, description, and last build date.

<title>Title of the RSS Feed</title>
<link>http://www.yourwebsite.co.uk</link>
<description>RSS feed description</description>
<lastBuildDate>Wed, 12 Sep 2007 17:00:00 GMT</lastBuildDate>

Simply fill in the title of the Feed, the main URL of your site and a brief description of the site. Within the last build date fill in the date the last time the Feed was last edited. Please note that all dates in the RSS feed should comply to RFC 822 date formats, which should conform to:
Date: ddd, dd, mmm, yyyy
Time: HH:mm:ss

4) Now its time to add your individual items to your RSS feed. Each item should have its own title, link, description and publication date.

<item>
<title>RSS Item Title</title>
<guid>http://www.yourwebsite.co.uk/section</guid>
<description>Items description</description>
<pubDate>Wed, 12 Sep 2007 17:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
</item>
…more items here

Simply fill in the title, URL and description of each item you want to include in your RSS feed. It is a good idea to base these items around your main keywords for the site.

The <guid> element should be used for each individual items URL, you will however have to ensure each item has a unique URL or the feed will not validate.

5) Finally you just need to close the channel and RSS tags

</channel>
</rss>

That’s it for my simple RSS Feed tutorial. It is worth noting that larger more dynamic websites which update regularly would benefit from dynamic RSS feeds which update when new products are added to your database. As of our optimisation process at Just Search we create these feeds for you.